ABSTRACT
In order for a positive employee–organization relationship (EOR) to exist, employees must believe they are being treated fairly, competitively, and appropriately in the employment relationship. More specifically, the EOR includes both psychological contracts (an individual-level phenomenon) and the employment relationship (a group-level phenomenon) as fundamental building blocks (Shore et al., Chapter 1, this volume). Managers must make decisions, formulate policies, and design and administer workforce-management systems that are prudent and sustainable from a business perspective. They seek certainty about how specific courses of action will work, because deciding which to use involves risk. They may use instinct, past experience, and/or research evidence to decide on appropriate courses of action. If they base their actions on practices that evidence has shown to be sound and effective, they are using evidence-based management. This is the essence of the scientist–practitioner model, which discourages both practice that has no scientific basis and research that has no clear implications for practice (Bass, 1974; Dunnette, 1990; Murphy & Saal, 1990; Rupp & Beal, 2007).
